The attackers were Sunnis and the victims were all from countries that support the shiate Assad government in Syria (well, I'm not sure about Ukraine).

I don't know why everybody is jumping to the conclusion that the victims were not tourists. The area is close to the Chinese border, fairly far from the cities most associated with violence (Lahore and Peshawar). The mountains and the city of Gilgit are popular with tourists, and up until recently the area has been considered one of the most secure regions in Pakistan. While western tourists are more likely to choose the Alps, for obvious reasons, it's not surprising that Chinese and Russians would choose a relatively safe spot closer to home for travel (or does everybody think that Russians and Chinese are never allowed to travel abroad for pleasure?). Business meetings would more likely be held in Gilgit than in a remote mountain base camp...unless, of course, we were in a James Bond movie and the meeting were being run by Blofeld.

Given the death rate on that mountain, is it ever the year to climb K2?

Though I will say at least on K2 it'll usually be the mountain that gets you, not some poorly prepared owner of a plumbing supply company from Scottsdale who wants to work out a midlife crisis on Everest.

For the record, we did a hell of a job training/equipping and organizing the kill squads that fill the region. Not really a pro or anti political statement. I foresee a lot of these little "A-Teams" get hired out between the chinese and the russians.

As bad as K2 is there isn't a 100% fatality rate. What probably happened was somebody thought they could get away with calling one of the locals a motherfarker in Urdu just like they did that Sherpa on Everest and it would turn into a snowball throwing incident/brouhaha/kerfluffle until a bunch of Pakis bastards showed up with AK-47s "for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every motherfarker in the building."

Alonjar:Guys, they were there on business. China in particular is really big on mining Pakistani resources out of the ground. It is highly unlikely they were on vacation, or foreign agents for that matter.

You'd be amazed at the number of Chinese running around in Africa right now trying to rape the land there as well.

I think it's waaaay too early to say why they were there. China is right there, so it seems like a decent vacation choice.But yeah, the rest of your post is right. That locust swarm isn't going back into Pandora's box.

Well off hand, I can think of 10 dead people who would. The world is full of stupid people and I am thinking this should qualify for a Darwin Award. That being said, I think a better questions to ask is "Why would anyone vacation in Pakistan." Seriously, what is there to do there except perhaps watch terrorists storm your hotel and such.

You kidding? You can watch them throw acid into the faces of little girls trying to go to school. They make a sport of it. You can always watch them gang rape girls and then beat and stone them to death for being whores for letting themselves get gang raped. And they have daily parades where they say they will kill anyone that insults how peaceful and perfect Islam is compared to everything else.

FullMetalPanda:You can watch them throw acid into the faces of little girls trying to go to school. They make a sport of it. You can always watch them gang rape girls and then beat and stone them to death for being whores for letting themselves get gang raped. And they have daily parades where they say they will kill anyone that insults how peaceful and perfect Islam is compared to everything else.

If I were already dying of some terminal illness, maybe I'd put it on my bucket list...

/Interesting GIS//Put me on a list or two///Hi, NSA

Yeah, but you could see scenery just as beautiful as that in Canada, the USA, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, etc. You know, places where you most likely won't get gunned down for visiting.

/Yes, I realize I'm leaving somebody a HUGE opening by including the USA on my "not getting gunned down" list.

Somacandra:FullMetalPanda: You can watch them throw acid into the faces of little girls trying to go to school. They make a sport of it. You can always watch them gang rape girls and then beat and stone them to death for being whores for letting themselves get gang raped. And they have daily parades where they say they will kill anyone that insults how peaceful and perfect Islam is compared to everything else.

[img.fark.net image 500x631]

SO Somacandra, someone stating facts that you disagree with is a troll?

If I were already dying of some terminal illness, maybe I'd put it on my bucket list...

/Interesting GIS//Put me on a list or two///Hi, NSA

Yeah, but you could see scenery just as beautiful as that in Canada, the USA, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, etc. You know, places where you most likely won't get gunned down for visiting.

/Yes, I realize I'm leaving somebody a HUGE opening by including the USA on my "not getting gunned down" list.

Oh, I completely agree. But if you were already dying, why not journey to northern Pakistan? In any case, nowhere is completely safe, least of all rugged, mountainous regions. Or nations in the midst of ongoing conflicts with their neighbors, like India.